There is no way 1 generation of games can "take over and destroy" the "promise of gaming" because there are no restrictions on what future innovators can do with the tools and the platforms. The existence of some bad games doesn't preclude future good games.
As an example, my favorite mobile game is Slay the Spire
We already have beautiful mobile games, like Monument Valley. But that's not what the market is about. The very term "mobile game" reeks of low quality at this point. I don't see it changing.
What exactly is it that you are after? It seems like you are not content simply getting the games you want, such as Monument Valley. You also need everyone else to live their life a certain way?
Why not simply conclude that the market is big enough for everyone to coexist. And as long as there's games for you, you don't have to lament other people sitting around enjoying candy crush.
Well, yes, I need — or rather, would prefer — all the people who are addicted to portable slot machines, to stop throwing their lives away being addicted to portable slot machines.
But I don't blame those people for that, nor do I think that trying to get them to each personally attempt to overcome their addiction would be practical.
People with gambling addictions are people with a particular cognitive vulnerability to variable-scheduled rewards. Unlike people with other addictions, who "go overboard" on something that other people can "enjoy responsibly" (and so which society has a reason to otherwise permit), people with gambling addictions are the targets of products and services produced solely to target them, that people without gambling addictions just... don't see the point of. Slot machines of all sorts exist to commercially exploit gambling addicts. And they do so very well.
That very exploitation was why the US had outlawed casinos in almost every state; why casinos are 19+ to enter, even when not serving alcohol; why "casino game" video games must be rated M; why even depictions of gambling affect the age-ratings for TV shows and movies.
But now that exploitation has leaked. It's no longer limited to casinos; it's now everywhere in the palm of your hand — and not just bare-faced as "casino games", but also in the guise of everything from shooters to RPGs, all with their own variable-scheduled rewards that can suck up unbounded amounts of your very real money.
Obviously, I blame the exploiters — the "gaming" [i.e. casino] industry, and the ex-"gaming"-industry professionals infecting the games industry with their exploitation tactics. And also, I blame society, for not punishing the exploiters, not outlawing the exploitation.
> sitting around enjoying candy crush
My dude, Candy Crush is a great, fun, classic, and ethical game compared to what they have these days. Have you looked at the mobile casual games market in the last five years? If the words "rare JPEG" don't mean anything to you, then you should really spend a few minutes looking into the people throwing away their life savings on some of these "games."
In comparison games that can't survive under the Nintendo rules but still need a wide platform flourish on smartphones. That's where we see the split between games that can stand without micro-transaction and dark patterns, and those that can't. Genshin has been announced to come to the Switch for years now, and I'm not holding my breath given their mechanics, while the new iPhone's GPU capabilities are straight aimed at letting Hoyo thrive.
The same cannot be said for the app store. Save from basic DRM (steam has this), leaderboards (steam has this) & achievements (steam has this), you get much less for that cut.
Outside of small, niche indie games (which are great and do well within their own respect), free-to-play gacha games is the 'state of the art.
Smartphones have existed for a long time now, and the games absolutely suck, except the extremely rare high quality indie game port like Papers Please or Slay the Spire.
